2001 Tour de France

The 2001 Tour de France was a multiple-stage bicycle race held from 7 to 29 July, and the 88th edition of the Tour de France. It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong originally won the event, the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced in August 2012 that they had disqualified Armstrong from all his results since 1998, including his seven Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005. The verdict was subsequently confirmed by the Union Cycliste Internationale.

The race included a 67-kilometre-long (42 mi) team time trial, two individual time trials and five consecutive mountain-top finishing stages, the second of which was the Chamrousse special-category climb time trial. Thus, all the high-mountain stages were grouped consecutively, following the climbing time trial, with one rest day in between. France was ridden 'clockwise', so the Alps were visited before the Pyrenees. The Tour started in France but also visited Belgium in its first week. The ceremonial final stage finished at the Champs-Élysées in Paris, as is tradition. Erik Zabel won his record sixth consecutive points classification victory. This was a record for points classification victories and is still a record for most consecutive victories, however Peter Sagan now holds the record for most total green jersey wins with seven.

The organisers felt that the 2000 Tour de France had not included enough French teams and consequently changed the selection procedure. U.S. Postal Service was selected because it included the winner of the previous edition, Lance Armstrong. Team Telekom was selected because it included the winner of the 2000 UCI Road World Cup, Erik Zabel). Mapei–Quick-Step was selected because it won the team classification in the 2000 Giro d'Italia. Kelme–Costa Blanca was selected because it won the team classifications in both the 2000 Tour de France and 2000 Vuelta a España. A further twelve teams qualified based on the UCI ranking in the highest UCI division at the end of 2000, after compensating for transfers. Although initially it was announced that four wildcards would be given, the tour organisation decided to add five teams: In total, 21 teams participated, each with 9 cyclists, giving a total of 189 cyclists.

The teams entering the race were:

Qualified teams

Invited teams

The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,115 m (6,939 ft) at the summit of the Col du Tourmalet mountain pass on stage 14.

It was during this Tour de France that Johan Bruyneel, the Directeur Sportif of the US Postal team, intentionally mislead other teams about the condition of his riders through race radio, in an attempt to get opponents to believe his riders were suffering more than they actually were. This Tour is also noted for The Look, which became one of the more misinterpreted moments in cycling history.